If you like historical fiction, this is a well-written story. It is set in 1845 in New York during the time that the city formed its first police force. It deals with racism, not only toward blacks, but the Irish immigrants that are fleeing the potato famine. When children’s bodies are discovered, the newly appointed “copper” (The term comes from the copper stars the new police force wore), Timothy Wilde, must use his skills to solve the mystery. The story is set in the most notorious of New York’s wards back then, the Sixth Ward, which lies next to Five Points, a horrible slum.
I really enjoyed this book. It has a lot historical references to New York City politics and how corrupt it all was. But author, Lyndsay Faye had done her homework as far as painting a visual image of the disgusting living conditions that people lived in back then but then wrote an intriguing story as well.